summer hibernation, seemed once again to be one of our most valued tools as we began to stack the woodshed.” I end this selective backward glance at our forty years of publication with a small but personal confession. This summer issue Issue 158 on the cusp of our “full forty” is the very first issue that I sat down and read non-stop from cover to cover. With its theme of “Lost Culture” contributors shared tender memories, piercing, heartfelt poems, evocative accounts of assisted suicides. I was confronted with
my own amnesia, then recalled the almost unbearable loss of loved ones, and I was deeply moved by these dedicated chroniclers of our shared grief. Ultimately, I felt comforted by the power and presence of so many friends dead yet in the mysterious ways that words and pictures call forth—alive again in this ongoing witness and song of ourselves that RFD is. Happy Anniversary, RFD, and thanks to all who make it one of queer culture’s mitzvahs, darshans, blessings! w
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